END OF THE CHARITY DRIVE & BUTTONS SAVED THE DAY

 This past week is the last week of getting quilt tops finished up for my charity group to complete their final end of the year donations drive.  In October we will send off to 5 various agencies in our area  a total of approximately 350 finished quilts.  Then I am off to working on some fun projects for myself.  I just ordered two fall fabric Fat Quarter Bundles so cannot wait to dig into them. 

This is my last three.  I love the simple child's quilt with the elephants on it, and I think this blue, red, and yellow quilt could make a fun older child's quilt too.  Nice to be finished with this latest project.

Last week's blog had me lamenting about my pumpkin wall hanging quilt's leaf error.  It took me a couple of days and lots of wonderful advice from comments to decided that it was still worth hanging it in our entry hall.  I decided if I could find a caterpillar button or some other garden bug button sewing it onto that leaf would be a fun idea.  Unfortunately I was not able to find any of those, but in my button box, a carry over of hundreds of buttons my husband's mother gave me, I found these two little bumble bee buttons.  Yesterday I finished the binding and hung the quilt up in the entry hall.  We love it!

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QUILTING'S UPS AND DOWNS

The quilter returned two of my recent finished projects.  I still have my Rosemary and Thyme quilt top to get off to her over the next week or two.  Putting quilt backs together is my least favorite chore so we shall see how that goes.  

Yes my pumpkin wall hanging is done and if you have not immeditately noticed it in this picture, you have a much better eye than me.

Yes that lower left leaf.  Dispite putting all the blocks together, joining all the rows, I missed this.  I did not discover it until it was returned by the quilter.  She never noticed it either, as she would have immediately called me to get it back and fix the issue.  Will I hang it in the entry hall this coming fall as planned.  Yes, maybe and see how many of my family and quilting friends notice it. 

The quilting on it is beautiful, I think that is the most irritating thing about the whole situation.  Am I toying with making it over again, but frankly I am more likely to just hang it in my sewing room on the wall above where I sew to remind myself, perfect isn't always going to be obtainable.

The second quilt top returned after quilting has come back at least in my mind perfect.  I did have custom quilting done on it and it is just really nice.  This will go into my guild's quilt show in January.

While I am pretty disappointed with the pumpkin quilt outcome the New York Beauty quilt has just come out so nicely.  Best to just laugh at myself and move on to the next quilting project.

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LOTS OF FINISHED

I have spent this past week just working on finishing up quilts for the year end give away of Warm Wrappings my guild's charity group giveaway in October.  

I did decide to keep this batik quilt I made last month.  It was part of my plan to de-stash some of my batik fabric hoarding, which although I made 2 other quilt tops that went to my charity group was completely unsuccessful as the bin is just a full as it always was.  However, my husband liked this one and I decided to have it quilted and keep it.  Well we are not keeping it after all.  It is being given away today to our oldest granddaughter for her 33rd birthday instead. 

My quilter did a lovely job on the quilting and I think my choice of a backing was perfect for it.  
 

These are the last two of my baby/child quilt tops completed.

And these are two of my adult quilt tops finished.  I do have another two more to work on and finish.  Off to the charity group with these  once those are finished off time to start on a fall appliqué project I have had sitting in a drawer since May of 2024.

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ROSEMARY & THYME AND PLACEMATS

 This week I finally decided to shift from working on my guild's baby quilt charity requests and do a couple of personal projects and finishes.  

I finished my Rosemary and Thyme quilt top.  Those last 3 missing blocks were a real chore for me for some reason, but I finally pulled myself together and got them done.  Now just to do a back up and off to the quilter.

This delightful little one is our Yorkshire Terrier Zoey, and she likes her breakfast and snacks on a placemat.  Her old ones have been wash thousands of times and were looking pretty worn out, so I happened to find this fabric given to me in a bundle of scraps.  Just enough to make two new placemats for her.  

While digging out all my fabrics in order to finish the last 3 blocks of the Rosemary and Thyme quilt top along with some other this and that fabric scraps I ran across this scrappy placemat pattern.  We use placemats on a regular basis for our meals so placements for the various seasons are regular table settings for us.  This pattern however takes scrap quilting to a new height.  I always make four so this little project consisted of (224) 2" blocks, (8) 2" by 2.5" blocks, (4) 1" by 2" blocks, and (8) magic corners from 1.5" cuts.  I have taken scrap quilting to a new dimension.  I made the four pumpkin sections first and at that point of was just hooked.  Cannot wait until late September or early October to start using them. 

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BABY QUILTS REQUESTS

My quilt guild's charity group put in an urgent request for baby/children's quilts. Annually in October we donate approximately 350 finished quilts to 5 different local agencies.  Quilts for men/boys and young children it seems are always hard to come by.  

I finished up this one from left over fabrics from a quilt I had made years ago for  one of my grandson's when he graduated from fire academy.  He is now a fire fighter working for CalFire.  I think some little boy would love it.  It measures 45" by 45".

This one I think could be either girl or boy.  The little dots in the blue fabric are green, orange, and pink.  Not a lot of pink, so maybe. 

This one definitely a girl quilt.  I still have another two cut out and partially sewn together.

I still have a bit of a stash of children's quilt fabrics, there is not much of a demand any longer in our family of a need for them any longer.  When eventually there is there is always the ability to go on a fabric shopping spree.  

A month or so ago I finished all the blocks on my Rosemary and Thyme quilt by CottonStreetCommons, or so I thought.  I laid it out this past week on the design board and discovered, I had a problem.  Three blocks missing, I miss counted.  Now to dig out all the fabrics that were stashed away here and there and see about coming up with three more blocks. I have my work cut out for me this week on this now.

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